John G. Tower, 65, Longtime Senator From Texas

By MARTIN TOLCHIN, Special to The New York Times

Published: April 6, 1991

WASHINGTON, April 5—
In his 24 years in the United States Senate, John G. Tower, the first Republican Senator from Texas since Reconstruction, became one of the most influential and knowledgeable lawmakers on military and national security issues. But when he left Washington in 1989, he departed in virtual humiliation, as the Senate rejected a nominee of a new President for the first time.

Mr. Tower's repudiation by his former colleagues, who rejected him as President Bush's nominee for Secretary of Defense after public allegations of womanizing and heavy drinking, left a bitterness that could not be assuaged. In the normally clubby Senate, Mr. Tower was regarded by some colleagues as a gut fighter who did not suffer fools gladly, and some lawmakers indicated that they were only too pleased to rebuke him.

To have the institution that he had served turn on him was "deeply wounding," the 65-year-old Texan said in an interview last year. It was "something that stays with you and will stay with you for the rest of your life." Four Terms in the Senate

A dapper, diminutive figure who served four terms in the Senate, Mr. Tower was chairman of the Armed Services Committee when he retired in 1984. In the 1970's and early 80's he was a leading advocate of modernizing and expanding the military, and served as a central player in Congress in President Ronald Reagan's efforts to build up the nation's military arsenal.

But the job he craved for years, Secretary of Defense, was unattainable. And the rejection by his former colleagues shadowed the last two years of his life.

After his defeat he compared Capitol Hill unfavorably with Beirut. "They're pretty straightforward wha they do in Beirut," Mr. Tower said. "They hurl a grenade at someone or shoot a machine gun. Up here, it's a little more subtle, but just as ruthless, just as brutal. They kill you in a different way."

This year, in a book he wrote called "Consequences: A Personal and Political Memoir" that was published by Little, Brown & Company, Mr. Tower raged against his former colleagues. Senator John Glenn, an Ohio Democrat, is "not the brightest guy in Washington," Mr. Tower wrote, while Senator Jim Exon, a Democrat from Nebraska, "drinks, and drinks heavily." Senator Ernest F. Hollings is "the Senate bully, quick to attack with harsh and personal invective," Mr. Tower said of the South Carolina Democrat.

Mr. Tower reserved his most acid comments for Senator Sam Nunn, the Georgia Democrat who succeeded him as chairman of the Armed Services Committee and whose announcement against Mr. Tower's nomination was widely credited with sealing its defeat. Mr. Tower said the Senator suffered from blind ambition, timidity, inexperience and priggishness.

Only last month, shortly after the end of the Persian Gulf war, Mr. Tower sounded a melancholy note. He spoke of his long involvement with national security and foreign policy issues. "It's a little frustrating not to be involved," he told The Washington Post. "I think I could have made a very good job of it."

Mr. Tower's bitterness over his defeat was not assuaged by his access to Mr. Bush, with whom he occasionally lunched in private and who sought to ease the pain of defeat by naming him chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, where he served until his death today in a commuter plane crash near Brunswick, Ga. Son of a Minister

John Goodwin Tower was born in Houston on Sept. 29, 1925, the son of a Methodist minister. He joined the Navy in World War II at the age of 17 and served for three years in the Pacific on a landing craft. After the war he graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Tex., and earned a master's degree in political science from Southern Methodist University in Dallas before studying for a year at the London School of Economics.

Mr. Tower taught political science at Midwestern University in Wichita Falls, Tex., served as a Sunday school teacher and worked as an insurance salesman and a radio announcer.

He became a Republican in 1948 and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Texas Legislature in 1954. Texas Republicans chose him for a sacrificial run against Senator Lyndon B. Johnson in 1960, and he won 41 percent of the votes. The next year, when Mr. Johnson gave up his Senate seat to become Vice President under John F. Kennedy, Mr. Tower defeated William A. Blakeley, a conservative Democrat who had been appointed to replace Johnson. An Unabashed Conservative

Mr. Tower was an unabashed conservative from the moment he entered national politics. He was the first Senator to announce support for Barry Goldwater's 1964 Presidential campaign. In 1968, Mr. Tower helped to hold the Texas delegation for Richard M. Nixon, and he did not support Mr. Reagan until 1980. In 1988, Mr. Tower helped carry Texas for George Bush.

Mr. Tower sought the job of Secretary of Defense in 1981, but Mr. Reagan named Caspar W. Weinberger. After leaving the Senate in 1985, Mr. Tower served 14 months as the strategic arms negotiator in Geneva. Returning to Washington, he tried again for the Pentagon post in 1987 after Mr. Weinberger retired.

President Reagan turned to Mr. Tower at two critical junctures, as chairman of a panel that investigated the Iran-contra scandals and in lobbying Congress for ratification of a treaty with the Soviet Union banning medium-range nuclear weapons.

Mr. Tower also set up up his consulting company, John Tower & Associates, in Dallas. The company was consultant to some of the nation's largest weapons manufacturers, including LTV, Martin Marietta, Rockwell and Tetron. Mr. Tower did no lobbying, but had called a Congressional aide and former associate, James F. McGovern, who was Under Secretary of the Air Force, to check the progress of a contract for a client. Bitter Divorce in 1987

Twice divorced, Mr. Tower was the subject of rumors about womanizing, raised by his second wife, Lilla Burt Cummings, in a bitter divorce in 1987, and about excessive drinking. Mr. Tower denied his former wife's allegations. Associates said he was a moderate drinker but not a problem drinker. But Mr. Tower was close to his first wife, Lou Bullington, and dedicated his book to her.

It was these allegations that probably cost him the Pentagon post, but Mr. Tower also was criticized as being too close to the military industry.

In retrospect, he felt that he had been the victim of a virtual political mugging by his former colleagues. In an interview with The New York Times last year, Mr. Tower said: "Have I ever drunk to excess? Yes. Am I alcohol-dependent? No. Have I always been a good boy? Of course not. But I've never done anything disqualifying. That's the point."

He is survived by two daughters, Penny Tower Cook and Jeane Tower Cox, both of Dallas. A third daughter, Marian, was killed with him in the plane crash today.

Photo: Senator John G. Tower in March 1989, with his daughters, from the left, Penny Tower Cooke, Marian, who was killed with him in the plane crash yesterday, and Jeane Tower Cox. (Marty Katz)